Phillip Bigelow (bigelowp@juno.com) wrote:
<Yes, but comparing the relative *intelligence* of tyrannosaurids and chickens
is equally adventurous (actually, impossible, I submit). Unfortunately, E.Q.,
with all of its caveats and limitations, is the only empirical method we have
to say anything about the comparative intelligence of chickens and
tyrannosaurids. And I agree that it is practically worthless if used
specifically for that purpose. So, if you can provide another criterion that
would be better used as a gauge to support or refute Graydon's claim that
tyrannosaurs were smarter than chickens, I'm all ears.>
Sadly, comparing the relative intelligence to EQ is most disturbing, since it
is the hardest to do. First, one needs to quantify intelligence. The one must
coordinate intelligence to brain mass, and from there, to body mass, and one
must do this through many species. Only then can one compare species' EQ to
intelligence, etc., to say anything about relative smartiness. Since we can
only compare intelligence in our own species, and we can only make practical
experiments regarding the performance of intelligence and not the measure OF it
in other animals, we are at a sort of dead end on the tract we wish to make. As
is, there is no proof that EQ has anything to do with intelligence, as those
who take so-called IQ tests could prove (the closest thing there is to a "leve"
of intelligence for comparability) since they scale with experience and
practice. Theoretically, regardless of brain size to mass, any one could be as
intelligent as another.
Factors such as neuron density, activity patterns, axon firing speed, etc.,
all appear to relate to performance of intelligence, but never relate to
capacity for intelligence in an objective, reproducible way.
Cheers,
Jaime A. Headden
http://bitestuff.blogspot.com/
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
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